Water-wheel.



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE GOOI'I ER, OF JOIINSTOVVN, PENNSYLVANIA.

WATER-WHEEL.

SPEGIFIOATION forming part Of Letters Patent No. 678,869, dated July 23, 1901. I Application filed November 6, 1900, Serial No. 35,599. (No model.)

To ctZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, GEORGE GOCHER, a resident of J ohnstown, in the county of Cambria and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Water-Wheels; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact de-' scription of the invention, such as will euable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to an improved waterwheel, and more particularly to an overshot' water-wheel, the object of the invention being.

to provide a wheel of this character which will utilize to the fullest extent the weight of the water to turn the wheel and which will completely discharge the water at the lowest point, so as to offer the. least possible resistance to the return of the buckets to the point of filling.

With this object in view the invention consists in certain novel features of construction and combinations and arrangements of parts, as will be more fully hereinafter described, and pointed out in'the claims.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a side view, partly in section, illustrating my improvements. Fig. 2 is a front view, and Fig. 3 is a view in vertical section of one side of the wheel.

k represent collars secured on a shaft m and spaced a suitable distance apart, and radial spokes s are secured to the collar m and are secured at theirouter ends between an inner fiat ringj and an outer angle-iron ring h, and inner rings g of slightlyless diameter than the internal diameter of ringsj are secured to the inner faces of spokes s and have secured between them and the ring j a cylinder 1, extending from one set of spokes to the other, and a series of plates or partitions 2, preferably in the form of acompound curve in cross-section, are secured between rings j and around the cylinder 1 to form rigid buckets 3 for the water, as clearly shown in Fig. 1.

A series of alined bearing-sleeves fare secured around the periphery of ring it for spindles b, one which is provided above or in the entrance of each bucket 3. Circular disks or rollers a are secured on the spindles b beside rings 7', and are provided in their inner faces with semicircular grooves for the reception of the respective ends of semicircular buckets c, which latter are secured in the grooves of the disks or rollers a by any approved means.

Below eachvseries. of disks or rollers a a tripper is located, and each tripper comprises a base 10, to which a bar 11 is hinged by a pin 1', as shown, and a rubber block 0 or spring, if desired, is located between the basep and bar n to press the latter up against the rollers a, the frictional engagement thereof serving to rotate the disks or rollers a and empty buckets c, as will now be explained.

Water is discharged into buckets c and 3 at the top of the wheel, and it will be seen that owing to the pivotal support of the buckets 0 they will be maintained full of water until upset by the trippers at the bottom of the wheel, but the buckets 3 will discharge their contents throughout practically their entire movement, from the highest to the lowest point of the wheel, but owing to the peculiar position of buckets c the buckets 3 will discharge into the buckets 0 immediately below them, and the force of such discharged water will add to the power of the wheel, and when buckets c reach their lowest point they will engage the upper face of bar a, and the frictional engagement thereof against rollers or disks Cb will revolve the latter to turn the buckets over, thus emptying them completely, so that no resistance save that of the weight of the buckets is offered to the rotation of the wheel.

Various slight changes might be resorted to in the general form and arrangement of the several parts described without departing from the spirit and scope of my invention, and hence I would have it understood that I do not wish to limit myself to the precise details set forth, but consider myself at liberty to make such slight changes and alterations as fairly fall within the spiyit and scope of my invention.

Having fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a water-wheel, the combination of a series of freely-revoluble buckets, a fixed bucket behind each revoluble bucket and adapted to discharge into the latter as the wheel turns and means for positively rotating each revoluble bucket when itreaches its lowest position to dischargev its contents.

2. A water-wheel comprising framework, an annular series of fixed buckets and a series of freely-revoluble buckets disposed over the inlets of the fixed buckets so as to receive water from the latter as the wheel revolves.

3. A water-wheel comprising framework, an annular series of fixed buckets and an an nular series of buckets mounted axially to revolve freely and alternat-in g with the walls of the fixed buckets.

4. A water-wheel comprising framework, an annular series of fixed buckets, each having its walls disposed tangentially with relation to the wheel, and an annular series of buckets each mounted to rotate freely in advance of one wall of each fixed bucket.

5. In a water-wheel, the combination ofa frame, a series of fixed buckets, a series of movable buckets mounted in front of the fixed buckets so as to receive water therefrom as the wheel revolves, each of said movable buckets comprising end disks or rollers, shafts passing centrally through said disks or rollers and revolubly mounted on the frame so as to permit the movable buckets to rotate freely and completely, and trippers disposed in the paths of said end disks or rollers for rotating the latter and the movable buckets when they reach the lowest point of their movement.

6. In an overshot water-wheel, the combination with a cylinder, spokes connecting the cylinder and drive-shaft, rings on each end of said cylinder and partitions or plates secured on thecylinder between the rings forming rigid buckets, of buckets pivotally supported in the entrance of the rigid buckets 

